Japanese public broadcaster NHK shoots Winter Olympics in 8K

Japanese public broadcaster NHK is recording some events at the Winter Olympics in 8K.

A small technical team from the broadcaster has been testing equipment and recording sports events in the next next-generation technology. The organisation has also built a theatre inside the inside the International Broadcast Centre at the games and outfitted it with 145-inch Panasonic plasma display and 22.9-surround-sound speakers.

The theatre is open 12 hours a day and has featured highlights of the figure-skating events as well as the opening ceremony.

The facilities also include two Ikegami 8K cameras with FUJINON 5x lenses and Canon 10x lenses. The broadcaster has also set up a 4K camera to record slow motion footage at 300 frames per second.

NHK chose figure skating for the 8K test as it is a popular sport in Japan and the event lends itself to close-up shots.

“The frame size is wider, and, for figure skating, we can shoot much closer and have more close-ups,” Fumhito Katagai, NHK 8K camera operator told Sportvideo. “But, when shooting skaters that are closer and moving faster [than football players], it is hard to put them center and also not give people in the theater motion sickness.”

The last time 8K technology was used at a sporting event was the Confederations Cup in Brazil.

The technology could also be used in time for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, cutting out 4K altogether.